Wednesday, May 12, 2010

May 12, 1985: The Frozen Envelope

NEW YORK CITY - NBA history is ripe for fans of conspiracy theories. Are certain officials under specific orders to make sure certain teams win playoff games? Was Michael Jordan's first "retirement" actually a league-imposed suspension for gambling? Do teams lose on purpose at the end of the season to get a better draft pick? Was the 1985 Draft Lottery fixed?

The last conspiracy is related to the second-to-last; because of complaints about what appeared to be league-wide tanking at the end of the 1984 season, the NBA instituted a lottery system for its 1985 draft, where all seven teams that failed to make the playoffs had an equal shot at the No. 1 pick in the draft. Like the year before, 1985 was a year with one player universally seen as the best available player in the draft - in 1984, it was Akeem Olajuwon; in '85, Patrick Ewing. Not wanting a repeat of the previous year, when as many as four teams appeared to be losing on purpose for the right to draft Olajuwon, the NBA initiated the lottery process.

Here's where the conspiracy theorists start making their points. The New York Knicks made the playoffs in 1984, but didn't in 1985. Did the NBA want the Knicks to take the mantle as the league's marquee franchise? It's possible the NBA wanted that, but how were the powers that be supposed to know the Knicks would be as bad as they were in 1985? They had made the playoffs the year before, after all.

When the 1985 season ended, the Knicks had the third-worst record in the league, which would have given them the third pick in the old system - and in today's system, would have given them the third-best chance at the No. 1 pick. But for the first lottery, all seven teams were given the same chance at the top pick. Another point for the conspiracy! Why else would the league give the Knicks the same chance as the worst team?

Then there's the method for how the draft order was picked. The seven teams each had their logo placed in an envelope, and the seven identical envelopes were placed in a clear ball (think bingo) and spun around before commissioner David Stern reached in and grabbed them. Depending on who you believe, the envelope with the Knicks' logo was either A) frozen before hand to make it stand out from the others or B) had its corner bent in an obvious way to make it easy to pick out. Whether on purpose or not, Stern picked the Knicks' logo first, and New York had its franchise center.

Was there a conspiracy? We'll probably never know. What we know from the video is that Stern took longer to pick out the first envelope than for the other six - it was a slight, but noticeable difference. Also, there was an apparent bend in the top corner of the first envelope removed. But the bend could have easily happened while the drum was spinning, as other envelopes had them as well. And he could have taken longer on the first envelope just to add to the drama.

Regardless, no matter how often Stern and the rest of the NBA denies a conspiracy, it will always remain, because sometimes, conspiracies are more fun than truth.

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